The Kainai Nation - Profiles: Roy Fox

Roy Fox is all about energy. He has focused his own energy into securing natural resource rights to First Nations Peoples across Canada, and has helped change the manner in which natural resource development is handled on reserve lands.

From 1980 to 1996, Fox served the Kainai Nation as Chief. During his years in office, he helped lead the Kainai to an historic agreement with Canada whereby the Kainai Nation would assume control of the management and development of oil and gas resources on Kainai land. This arrangement carried huge implications not only for the Kainai, but for First Nations Peoples across the nation, for it set a precedent for those on reserve lands in relation to the natural resources that could be found on those lands.

Roy has continued to work to secure natural resources and management rights for the First Nations in his role as president and CEO of the Indian Resource Council of Canada (IRC). The IRC upholds the interests of oil and gas producing First Nations in Treaty areas 4, 6, 7, and 8, and in the regions covering British Columbia, Alberta, Saskatchewan, Manitoba, Ontario, the Atlantic Provinces, and the Northwest and Yukon Territories.

In 1998, Fox successfully won the support of several federal cabinet ministers for the First Nations Employment and Training Centre (FNET) initiative. FNET is a training program specifically geared for First Nations People who wish to gain employment in the petroleum industry, and acts as a liaison between the oil and gas sector and First Nations.

Roy Fox continues to serve as a leader in the Kainai community, and in the First Nations community across Canada. His hard work and dedication have truly made a difference in the ongoing efforts of First Nations People to carve their own economic destiny in Canada.